Labor Day Special

It's Labor Day again. Time for the end to summer heat and for the kids to head back to school (or, as my wife calls it, "the most wonderful time of the year"). We've got a nice sale on those back to school supplies that you've known you needed, but did not buy all summer long. I've still got to pick mine up!

For those of you who are spending this weekend in the city, either because you are saving some cash or because your Hamptons house is recovering from Irene, we're running a new special for this weekend only. If you want to stock up a bit, you can get $25 off your orders over $200 (plus free delivery, of course). Don't forget to use the coupon code LABORDAY to get the discount.

Not only is this a nice savings to get and gives you a good deal, but I always enjoy seeing if we really can pick, pack, verify, deliver $500 worth of groceries to someone in under 60 minutes. We always manage to do it, but it always amazes me when we do.

Have a happy Labor Day everyone and welcome to the most wonderful time of the year.

Only 2 days left for Buy More, Save More

Only 2 days left for the Buy More, Save More program that gives you $10 off orders over $100 and $25 off orders over $200

I've decided to keep the free delivery levels lowered back to $50 as we have had great feedback from our customers about the decision to lower it.

Let me know what you think - do you love free delivery at the lower level?

Gloomy Weather

Weather looking overcast and gloomy today.  For most people, weather like this can make you miserable, but I am happier than a duck on a pond on stormy days like this.

Nothing makes the benefits of our service more clear than a few raindrops on the window when you realize you are out of milk or want a fresh steak.  You can stay in and stay dry while we schlep around in the rain with all of your goods. 

(And, for those of you who worry about the rain for our staff or your orders, our staff is given high quality rain gear and your items are protected in waterproof bags during transit)

So, the next time you see the rain clouds looming, you can probably blame it on me; I've spent years perfecting a large variety of rain dances and other rituals.

Moving into Summer

The heat waves are starting in NYC now.  With that comes all of the usual small business headaches that we have to deal with.  Air conditioners that need to be upgraded, loading up on cooler bags for delivery, changing the product mix to make sure we keep ice pops in stock.  And, dealing with slowdowns in volume as half of NY takes off for the Hamptons each weekend...

At least there is some good news going on also. The new discounts are working very well and we are getting great feedback from customers about the large order discounts.  With those, people no longer have to trade off low price vs top quality service - we can give both.

I have to run and get back on the phone with the architects about the new air conditioners being installed soon (assuming we can satisfy the NYC dept of buildings).

Porterhouse Steaks are too good

As I've said a few times on this blog, in addition to owning the company, I am also a big Max Delivery customer (though, surprisingly, not the biggest user, but that's another story).

I used to order the meats from Max Delivery, but, to be honest, I did not love them.  They were organic and healthy, but not dry aged and the cut wasn't my favorite, so it did not grill up nicely. I would occasionally sneak one from Whole Foods or a local butcher to meet my carnivorous desires.

But, Ottomanelli has changed all that for me.  I ordered one of our Porterhouse steaks last night, added just some salt and pepper, and grilled it up.  The night before, I got the lamb chops and did something similar.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine used to be my favorite Best of NY, but Ottomanelli has now taken over for me.

Now, I never have to leave home again!

Extending the sale

Due to the overwhelming positive feedback on the large order discounts, we are extending them.

So, order over $100*, and get $10 off.
Order over $200*  and get $25 off.

When you add these discounts in, combined with the free delivery discounts at that level, you can save as much or more with Max Delivery than even the most bargain-basement next-day online service.

Our goal, in general, is to give the best service around, not necessarily be the cheapest.  But, with our delivery efficiencies, we can afford to also give back these discounts for our customers who are stocking up, so we are going to continue it.

Let us know what you think.

* Due to legal consideration, these discounts do not include products ordered from Artisan Wines or Bacchus Wines.  

Credit Card Processors...

Running a business is a Sisyphean task. Everyday, there is another crisis to be dealt with and another item to toss on the bottom of the to-do list. For those of you who have never been an entrepreneur, do something easier, like inventing a perpetual motion machine.

Today's crisis du-jour deals with our credit card processing company. They recently tightened some of their underwriting rules for us requiring information from customers to match exactly for billing address and zip code.

This sounds like a no-brainer, except for one large issue. The way that the credit card network works is as follows (more extensive version here):

• We send in our customer's information (card, name, etc).
• They check if money is available and put a hold on the funds. They send back to us an approval code and a separate code indicating if the address matches.
• If the card had funds and did not match the address, our processor then voids the authorization/hold.

Here is where the money wrench is thrown into the process. Many banks that issue debit cards don't do anything when they receive the "void" request and, instead, just let the transaction time out (usually a few days to a week). So, the transaction just "sits" out there, sucking up available balance from the customer's card until the bank deems it is ok to release it. And, to make it worse, the customer may then try 1 or 2 more times to try to get the address right.

Of course, customers look at their statement and see 3 charges from MaxDelivery when they only placed one order. And, naturally, they are upset at us thinking that we are trying to pull a fast one.  We can protest all we want that those authorizations NEVER can ever go to MaxDelivery, but the bank conveniently puts our name on the authorization, so the customers get upset at us.  And, to make it even better, all that we can do to fix the problem is call the customer's bank and beg them to please release the hold.

Today, we should be able to get this decision reversed by the card processor (I hope) by putting in place some physical controls if the address doesn't match (e.g. get a card swipe/imprint if the info does not match).  But, it's just another in an unending stream of tasks to be done if you care deeply about your customer's experience  - which I do.

So, for those of you aspiring business owners, please ensure your are a true masochist before you take the plunge.

Singin' In the Rain

Nasty rainy days make my life miserable, just like everyone else.  The chances of catching a cab are about as good as winning the lottery.  The winds whip around in manhattan making mincemeat of any umbrella that you might try to use.  And, if you do manage to keep the umbrella in one piece, the cab that wouldn't pick you up drives by and splashes a puddle all over you.

But, as a business owner of a service that is just a lifesaver in the rain, I also LOVE the rain.  Nothing showcases the ultra convenience of our service better than ordering a movie, some popcorn, snacks and drinks during a thunderstorm.  When the MaxDelivery guy comes about 40 minutes later, it makes you feel just how great our service is and how much easier it makes your life.  The only tough part of these days is getting enough people to cover all the extra orders.

And, for those who have asked, our staff gets topline Colombia Outdoor rain gear to keep them dry (though on hot summer rainstorms, they may prefer to get wet to cool off) and we take it a little slower during the storms for safety.

So, the next time it is pouring outside, you can probably put the blame squarely on me and those rain dances/voodoo rituals that I have been performing to coax the thunderstorms to come...

Reminiscing about the "old days"

 I was looking at some recent posts and tweets from various people discussing Kozmo.com with them wishing that the service would come back.  After I get past the obvious indignation that "we are Kozmo, only new and improved", I also reminisce about some of the good and bad of the dot-com craziness.

There was a lot to love about Kozmo when it launched.  Joe Park came up with an incredibly crazy idea that you could go into a dial-up world and get people order their entertainment products online and then deliver them immediately.  While we knew that everyone thought we were insane, we also knew that the service was amazing and was light years better than anything available elsewhere.  And so we forged forward with a crazy dream and a lot of moxie.

You probably all know the rest of the story from there (if you don't, i highly recommend renting E-Dreams for the best view inside the rise and fall of the dot-coms).  Lots of money tossed in, some incredibly cute marketing, a great service....and an eventual crash.

I picked up the gauntlet about 5 years ago to try to recreate and improve upon the magic of kozmo, without the eventual fall that occurred.  When we started, it was an even crazier idea than when Kozmo did it.  After all, Kozmo had "proven" that you could not make a viable business of an instant delivery service and we were "destined to fail in 6 months"....that was 5 years ago...

MaxDelivery stuck as close as possible to the original vision of a service that makes your life easier, getting for you all the things that you need everyday and delivering them in under an hour.  We even kept the fees low (only a $2.95 delivery fee) and prices competitive with your supermarkets to make it easy to choose us for your daily life.

We didn't just copy the old service - we added to Kozmo's original dream by focusing the service on getting you everything you need for your everyday life.   My basic philosophy is "if you still have to put your shoes on and go downstairs, we did not do our job"  Did we succeed in recreating kozmo's magic?  Did we improve upon it?  Let me know what you think.

I DO miss those commercials with the guy getting shot out of a cannon, though!

The Fun Life of Small Businesses

I was reading an article today about one of our Best of New York partners, Jacques Torres Chocolates.  We've been working with Jacques for a long time and think the world of their chocolates - high end, gourmet chocolates, made right here in NYC.

The gist of this article is that Jacques was being sued by Hershey's because his "Champagne Kiss" truffles were some kind of infringment on "Hershey's Kisses"  First, as you can see below, the Champagne Kiss looks NOTHING like a hershey's kiss.
     

Second, for anyone who has tasted the 2 of these chocolates, there would never be any confusion between the smooth silky flavor of Jacques chocolates and the .... (to be polite) somewhat less impressive taste of a Hershey's kiss.  Jacques would not be interested in copying their name and associating himself with chocolate that is, most would agree, inferior in quality and taste.

Just another day as a small business person trying to make a superior product and satisfy your customers.  You have to deal constantly with these small nuisances which have nothing to do with making your customers happy.

Eileens is back in stock!

We've got Eileen's Cheesecakes back in stock.

We're expanding the selection of the personal sized cheesecakes to all of their flavors. The only thing wrong with them is that they are killing my ability to watch my weight. The popularity of the cheesecakes has been amazing, so apparently I am not the only one having my waistline ruined by Eileen.

**Also, look for a new announcement coming soon about a fun new program by MaxDelivery. I'm tired of all the gloom and doom in the world these days and, while I can't actually make the problems in the Gulf better, we're going to try to bring some smiles to people over the next few months.

First Entry

People have suggested that we start a blog to muse over the vagaries of our unique service, along with announcing new and interesting things going on at www.maxdelivery.com. I'll try to keep the commercialization aspect of the posting to a minimum and focus more on events and happenings in running a small and fairly unique business, but I'll spend a few minutes here going over what the company is (for those 98% of you who have never heard of us).

What is MaxDelivery?
MaxDelivery is an online store that has everything you need, delivered to your door in under an hour. At its heart, it's a simple proposition - save people from running to 3-4 local stores to pick up groceries, wine, drugstore items, etc and let them get some of their life back. Do it all for them in less time than it would take to do it themselves - less than an hour for all deliveries. On top of that, we are able to do it at prices competitive with the supermarket and with a low delivery fee ($2.95). So, in my opinion (and those of our customers), we are the best thing since sliced bread (and yes, we carry sliced bread and fresh-baked loafs too!)

Who am I?
My name is Chris Siragusa, the founder of the company. I started this business about 5 years ago in an attempt to create a service that I personally found more convenient than going to the local deli. No offense meant to the next-day supermarket services, but scheduling my grocery delivery for 2 hour windows 2 days from now just never seemed convenient to me - it was more like scheduling the cable-guy for service. I've built the service with the express goal of being able to live my entire life without having to set foot in a supermarket again (haven't had to go to one in about 3 years now!) and with enabling my ability to be lazy while avoiding take out food every night.

What will this blog be about?
Now that the basic marketing spin has been done, this blog will mostly focus on the day to day issues that come up with a service such as ours. I expect there will be some amusing anecdotes about ordering that we get periodically, some discussions about new products and things we are adding, and some discussions about running a small business in New York. Hopefully, there will be some feedback and comments to make this a little bit of a 2 way street, but we'll see how that goes if we can get some entertaining content going.

Welcome to the blog and thanks for reading.